JP2020129255A - Information transmitter and method for transmitting information - Google Patents

Abstract

To allow determination of whether tailgating was done or not.SOLUTION: An information transmitter 1 includes: an image acquisition unit 121 for acquiring an image taken by an imaging unit provided in an own vehicle V; an information identification unit 122 for identifying number plate information of a vehicle A travelling around an own vehicle V on the basis of the image taken by the image acquisition unit 121; a state specification unit 123 for specifying the state of travelling of the vehicle A, of which number plate information was identified by the information identification unit 122; and a transmission control unit 124 for relating the number plate information identified by the information identification unit 122 and peripheral vehicle information corresponding to the travelling state specified by the state specification unit 123 to each other and transmitting the information to an external device S not equipped in the own vehicle V.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to an information transmitting device and an information transmitting method.

A technique for detecting the vehicle number of a peripheral vehicle based on an image taken by an in-vehicle camera is disclosed (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP, 2008-140128, A

In recent years, tilting driving, which extremely shortens the inter-vehicle distance while driving a vehicle, has become a problem. Although it is possible to identify the vehicle numbers of the peripheral vehicles by using the conventional technique, it has not been possible to detect whether or not the peripheral vehicle has performed a tilting drive.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object thereof is to provide a technique for making it possible to confirm whether or not a tilting operation has been performed.

In the first aspect of the present invention, an image acquisition unit that acquires a captured image captured by an imaging unit provided in the vehicle, and travels around the vehicle based on the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit. An information identifying unit that identifies license plate information of another vehicle, a state identifying unit that identifies the traveling state of the other vehicle in which the information identifying unit identifies the license plate information, and an information identifying unit that identifies And a transmission control unit that associates the license plate information with information corresponding to the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit and transmits the license plate information to an external device not mounted on the vehicle. To do.

For example, the transmission control unit transmits information corresponding to the traveling state to the external device when the traveling state identified by the state identification unit satisfies a condition for transmitting information corresponding to the traveling state. ..

For example, the state identification unit identifies an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and another vehicle traveling behind the vehicle, and the transmission control unit determines that the inter-vehicle distance identified by the state identification unit is a predetermined value. If the distance is less than or equal to the distance, information corresponding to the traveling state is transmitted to the external device.

For example, the transmission control unit transmits the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit and the information corresponding to the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit to the external device in association with each other.

In a second aspect of the present invention, a step of acquiring a captured image captured by an image capturing section provided in the vehicle, which is executed by a computer mounted in the vehicle, and a step of capturing the captured image of the vehicle based on the captured image Identifying license plate information of another vehicle traveling around, identifying a traveling state of the other vehicle identifying the license plate information, identifying the identified license plate information, and identifying the traveling state And a step of transmitting the information to the external device which is not mounted on the vehicle in association with the information corresponding to the information transmission method.

According to the present invention, it is possible to confirm whether or not the tilting operation has been performed.

It is a figure for explaining the outline of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the own vehicle which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process which transmits information.

[Outline of Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the embodiment. FIG. 1 schematically shows a host vehicle V traveling on a road and another vehicle A traveling around the host vehicle V. The information transmission device mounted in the host vehicle V identifies license plate information of another vehicle A traveling around the host vehicle V based on the captured image captured by the image capturing unit provided in the host vehicle V, The identified license plate information is transmitted to the external device S. The external device S is a device that is not mounted on the host vehicle V, and is an information processing device that manages information transmitted from the host vehicle V.

In recent years, tilting driving, which extremely shortens the inter-vehicle distance while driving a vehicle, has become a problem. However, only by transmitting the license plate information of another vehicle from the own vehicle to the external device S, the administrator of the external device S could not confirm whether or not the swaying operation was performed.

Therefore, the information transmitting device according to the present embodiment transmits the surrounding vehicle information for confirming whether or not the tilting driving is performed. An outline of a process in which the information transmitting device transmits the peripheral vehicle information will be described with reference to FIG.

The information transmitting apparatus acquires a picked-up image obtained by picking up an image of the surroundings of the own vehicle V by the image pickup unit provided in the own vehicle V (101 in FIG. 1). The information transmission device identifies license plate information of another vehicle A traveling around the vehicle V based on the captured image. Next, the information transmitting device identifies the traveling state of the other vehicle A that has identified the license plate information (102 in FIG. 1). The traveling state is, for example, at least one of the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle V and the other vehicle A and the speed of the other vehicle A.

Then, the information transmission device transmits the license plate information and the peripheral vehicle information including the information corresponding to the traveling state in association with each other to the external device S (103 in FIG. 1 ). By doing so, the administrator of the external device S can confirm whether or not the vehicle V that has transmitted the peripheral vehicle information has undergone a tilting drive.

[Configuration of Information Transmission Device 1 According to this Embodiment]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the vehicle V according to the present embodiment. The host vehicle V includes an information transmitting device 1, a camera 2, a distance measuring sensor 3, and a vehicle speed sensor 4. The camera 2 is an image capturing unit that captures an image around the host vehicle V and generates a captured image. The distance measuring sensor 3 is a sensor that detects a distance to an object around the vehicle V. The distance measuring sensor 3 has, for example, a laser distance measuring sensor, but may have another distance measuring sensor. The vehicle speed sensor 4 is a sensor that detects the speed of the vehicle V.

The information transmission device 1 includes a communication unit 10, a storage unit 11, and a control unit 12. The communication unit 10 is a communication module for communicating with the external device S. The communication unit 10 transmits/receives information to/from the external device S via a base station of a mobile phone network, for example.

The storage unit 11 is, for example, a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory). The storage unit 11 stores various programs for causing the control unit 12 to function.

The control unit 12 is a calculation resource including a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (not shown). The control unit 12 realizes the functions as the image acquisition unit 121, the information identification unit 122, the state identification unit 123, and the transmission control unit 124 by executing the programs stored in the storage unit 11. The image acquisition unit 121 acquires a captured image captured by the camera 2 provided in the vehicle V.

The information identifying unit 122 identifies license plate information of another vehicle A traveling around the host vehicle V based on the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit 121. The information identifying unit 122 identifies the character written on the license plate attached to another vehicle A as the license plate information by analyzing the captured image. For example, the license plate information includes a vehicle registration number or a vehicle number, a classification according to the type and purpose of the vehicle, and information for distinguishing between private use and business use.

The state identifying unit 123 identifies the traveling state of the other vehicle A for which the information identifying unit 122 has identified the license plate information. The state identifying unit 123 identifies, as the traveling state of the other vehicle A, for example, at least one of an inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle V and the other vehicle A and a speed of the other vehicle A.

For example, the state identifying unit 123 acquires the distance detected by the distance measuring sensor 3 and the speed of the host vehicle V detected by the vehicle speed sensor 4. The state identifying unit 123 identifies the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle V and the other vehicle A based on the distance detected by the distance measuring sensor 3. In addition, the state identifying unit 123 identifies the relative speed between the host vehicle V and the other vehicle A as the traveling state based on the time change of the detected distance. Then, the state specifying unit 123 specifies the speed of the other vehicle A based on the specified relative speed and the speed of the host vehicle V.

The state identifying unit 123 may identify the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle V and the other vehicle A and the behavior of the other vehicle A different from the speed of the other vehicle A as the traveling state. For example, the state identifying unit 123 may identify, as the traveling state, that the other vehicle A has suddenly braked, suddenly accelerated, or passed.

The transmission control unit 124 associates the license plate information identified by the information identifying unit 122 with the peripheral vehicle information corresponding to the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit 123, and transmits the license plate information to the external device S. For example, the transmission control unit 124 transmits the surrounding vehicle information including the inter-vehicle distance specified by the state specifying unit 123 and the speed of the other vehicle A in association with the license plate information. By doing so, the administrator of the external device S moves the other vehicle A identified by the license plate information to the own vehicle V based on the transmitted inter-vehicle distance and the speed of the other vehicle A. You can check whether you have driven.

The transmission control unit 124 may transmit the peripheral vehicle information to the external device S when the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit 123 satisfies the condition of transmitting the peripheral vehicle information. For example, the transmission control unit 124 transmits the peripheral vehicle information to the external device S when the inter-vehicle distance specified by the state specifying unit 123 is equal to or less than the predetermined distance. The predetermined distance is a distance determined based on the speed of the other vehicle A or the speed of the own vehicle V specified by the state specifying unit 123. In addition, the transmission control unit 124 may transmit the peripheral vehicle information to the external device S when the state identifying unit 123 identifies that the other vehicle A has undergone sudden braking, sudden acceleration or passing. By doing so, the information transmitting device 1 transmits the peripheral vehicle information when it can be considered that the tilting driving has been performed, so that the amount of communication with the external device S can be reduced.

The transmission control unit 124 may transmit the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit 121 and the peripheral vehicle information to the external device S in association with each other. By doing so, the administrator of the external device S can confirm the actual situation, and thus can easily confirm whether or not the tilting operation has been performed.

Hereinafter, a flow of processing for transmitting information, which is executed by the control unit 12 of the information transmitting device 1, will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process of transmitting information.

First, the image acquisition unit 121 acquires a captured image captured by the camera 2 (step S1). The information identifying unit 122 identifies license plate information of another vehicle A based on the acquired captured image (step S2). Subsequently, the state identifying unit 123 identifies the traveling state of the other vehicle A for which the information identifying unit 122 identifies the license plate information (step S3).

The transmission control unit 124 determines whether the traveling state specified by the state specifying unit 123 satisfies a predetermined condition for transmitting the surrounding vehicle information (step S4). When the transmission control unit 124 determines that the traveling state does not satisfy the predetermined condition (No in step S4), the information transmission process ends. When determining that the traveling state satisfies the predetermined condition (Yes in step S4), the transmission control unit 124 transmits the surrounding vehicle information (step S5).

(Modification)
The information transmitting device 1 may transmit the image including the license plate in association with the surrounding vehicle information without identifying the license plate information. For example, when the information transmission device 1 specifies the license plate of another vehicle A based on the captured image, the information transmission device 1 associates the captured image with peripheral vehicle information and transmits the license plate to the external device S. By doing so, the information transmitting apparatus 1 does not execute the process of identifying the license plate information, and thus the load on the information transmitting process can be reduced.

[Effects of the information transmission device 1 according to the present embodiment]
As described above, the information transmission device 1 identifies the license plate information of the other vehicle A traveling around the host vehicle V based on the captured image captured by the camera 2 provided in the vehicle, and outputs the license plate information. The traveling state of the identified other vehicle A is specified. Then, the information transmitting device 1 transmits the license plate information and the peripheral vehicle information corresponding to the traveling state to the external device S in association with each other. By doing so, the administrator of the external device S can confirm whether or not the swing operation has been performed.

Although the present invention has been described above using the embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist thereof. is there. For example, all or part of the apparatus can be functionally or physically distributed/integrated in arbitrary units. Further, a new embodiment that occurs due to an arbitrary combination of a plurality of embodiments is also included in the embodiments of the present invention. The effect of the new embodiment produced by the combination also has the effect of the original embodiment.

1 Information Transmission Device 2 Camera 3 Distance Measuring Sensor 4 Vehicle Speed Sensor 10 Communication Unit 11 Storage Unit 12 Control Unit 121 Image Acquisition Unit 122 Information Identification Unit 123 State Identification Unit 124 Transmission Control Unit

Claims (5)

An image acquisition unit that acquires a captured image captured by an imaging unit provided in the vehicle,
An information identification unit that identifies license plate information of another vehicle traveling around the vehicle based on the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit,
A state identifying unit that identifies the traveling state of the other vehicle in which the information identifying unit identifies the license plate information;
A transmission control unit that transmits the license plate information identified by the information identifying unit and information corresponding to the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit to an external device that is not mounted on the vehicle,
An information transmitting apparatus having. The transmission control unit, when the traveling state specified by the state specifying unit satisfies a condition for transmitting information corresponding to the traveling state, transmits information corresponding to the traveling state to the external device,
The information transmission device according to claim 1. The state identification unit identifies the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and another vehicle traveling behind the vehicle,
The transmission control unit, when the inter-vehicle distance specified by the state specifying unit is a predetermined distance or less, transmits information corresponding to the traveling state to the external device,
The information transmission device according to claim 2. The transmission control unit transmits the captured image acquired by the image acquisition unit and the information corresponding to the traveling state identified by the state identifying unit to the external device in association with each other,
The information transmission device according to claim 1. Executed by the computer installed in the vehicle,
Acquiring a captured image captured by an image capturing unit provided in the vehicle,
Identifying license plate information of another vehicle traveling around the vehicle based on the acquired captured image,
Identifying the running state of the other vehicle that has identified the license plate information,
A step of associating the identified license plate information with information corresponding to the identified traveling state, and transmitting the license plate information to an external device not mounted on the vehicle;
An information transmission method having.

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